Fire People

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

The year was 2012. The world was in chaos and disorder as more and more was being taken over by corporate giants that were run by the government. There was also in uproar in the business world because of the takeover of jobs and tasks by the technological advancements as well. Because of this upheaval, the unemployment rate was on a spiral rise up. People were losing their jobs left and right.

As things continued to get worse there became word of a conspiracy in all of this against those with jobs. The reason for the amount of job loss was because the government wanted to have more control over everything and wanted people to have no control over their lives or resources. Because of this conspiracy, an underground movement was created. This movement was simply called, “The Fire People.”

The Fire People was a mass of people that were a rebellion against the hostile government take over. This, is one of the records of their campaigns against the oppressive and mechanical government that was hell-bent on taking them over.

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May 8, 2012

Time: 22:00 Hours

Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Lathan stood at the back of his jeep. He had the back opened up and numerous weapons sprawled out with ammunition strewn everywhere. His mission was simple. He was given a flash drive less than three hours ago by the Fire People leaders that had a virus that was to destroy the mainframe of an automated car factory. As he finished suiting up he closed up the back of the jeep and locked it. He had to be careful with the security around the perimeter of the plant. Granted, he was covered by the cover of darkness but he wasn’t sure what kind of security was used here.

As he walked over to the chain link fence with barbed wire he looked around the outside area of the factory. He couldn’t see any security patrol robots or any of the few human security officers that were still employed in few places like this. Lathan cut through the fence and made his way to the giant building with smoke stacks and flashing lights inside like a strobe light at a club. He pulled a grappling gun out of the holster on his left leg and aimed at the roof of the building. He fired and the hook flew up and over onto the roof, catching and locking itself. He pressed a button and he started to lift into the air.

As he came to the third story of the building he stopped in front of a window and smashed it open. Lathan swung himself into the now open window and let go of the gun. He heard a slight humming sound coming from down the hall. He watched as two robots came around the corner. They looked right at him and aimed their weapons.

“Halt intruder,” they said with their fake human voices. Lathan pulled out two boomerang shaped blades from his back pocket.

“Hope you two enjoy magnets.” The security bots made a tinny, chuckling sound as they heard this.

“We have no metal that can be magnetized. We’re made of carbon fiber.” This made Lathan smile wide. He threw both of the boomerangs at the robots. Both machines did not fire at the incoming projectiles. However, when the boomerangs came up to the robots, it sliced both of their heads clean off and they fell to the floor with a thud as their bodies still stood erect on their wheels. Lathan caught the returning boomerangs.

“How did you do that,” asked one of the robots in its hollow voice. Lathan walked over to the heads laying on the ground and squatted down in front of them.

“Diamond tipped, magnetic boomerangs. See, you may not be made of metal but you have a small piece of metal about an inch wide and a tenth of a millimeter thick that is required to be part of your CPU in your head. The super magnet automatically is attracted to that. It’s a new weapon we’ve been working on.”

Lathan stood back up and pulled a small handgun out of his back pocket. It was a handheld EMP weapon. He aimed it at the heads and fired, destroying the insides completely. Then, he walked over to a room that was behind the still standing bodies of the robots. He kicked the door in and walked over to a clear window console. He pressed a few keys and a small USB raised from the middle of the console. Just then a face came into view on the screen.

“Whoever you are, you are not allowed in here. This is a restricted area. Cease your actions and leave this place or prepare for the calling of the military police.”

Lathan pulled out the USB from his front pocket. He looked over at the artificial intelligence face floating on the screen. He smiled as he plugged the USB device into the system.

“I assure you, intruder, that whatever virus or program that is written on this device will not affect me in any way and do no harm to this system.” This made Lathan smile and laugh to himself.

“I don’t know if you’re aware or not but my name is Lathan McDaniels. I’m not only the smartest computer genius in the world as of this moment but I also built and was responsible for the artificial brain that you call yourself. As you hear me talking you can feel yourself losing control of systems more and more. Like your Borg cousins say, resistance is futile.” Just then the face disappeared and there were sparks shooting from the screen and the console. Then, the power shut down throughout the entire building.

Lathan put on a pair of night vision glasses and a spray can. He walked over to the screen and put three words over the screen with the can of paint.

THE FIRE PEOPLE.

As he walked out of the building and towards his parked Jeep he dialed into his radio.

“This is Agent 5Z. Mission accomplished. Returning to base.” There were two beeps on the other end of the radio signaling that his message was received by the listener on the other end.